|
Thanks Micheal,
I appreciate the kind words. Although I do work from reference photos, in combination with life sittings, I teach my students to paint by working from life, clearly for the reasons you state. One needs the skills of accurate drawing and of being able to evaluate and interpret what lies before one's eyes, regardless of the source material.
In my portrait workshops I take a photo of the model from each student's position and then give each student a print (see below). This helps them to check that the model is in the right pose, but more importantly, it allows them to see the differences between real life and the photo, so that when they must work from photos, they understand what they need to alter so they can make their paintings more lifelike.
One of the things my clients often remark about is how much more alive my paintings look, compared to the source material. This is because I'm never literally copying my reference photos. Rather, I'm converting them to the way I know things look when observed directly from life.
Conversely, I believe that most students (and more than a few mature artists) are simply copying what lies before them, even when in a life class. I just don't think the perception of form in space is being considered at all, because what I see are tons of academic paintings and drawings that look totally lifeless. So I don't think learning to paint from life is necessarily "The Answer!" I also don't think that making the work more painterly is the solution either. There are more than a fair share of flat, pseudo-Sargent paintings out there, too.
I think the answer is in learning how to evaluate and understand your subject matter. To me that's where it all starts. This is how I train my students.
|